


That One Time Jason Todd Works with Tim Drake, and the Times After That

by orphan_account



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: !!!, Angst, But yes mostly feelings because FEELINGS, Fluff, I mean, Plot is abundant!!, Too!, WELL THERES SOME
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-08
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-05-25 13:07:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6196240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason and Tim goes on a mission or two, and oddly enough, they don't try to murder each other. </p><p>a/n: The first chapter has NO PLOT AT ALL but it'll all change in the subsequent instalments (I hope? JK, there will be PLOT, okay, GOOD PLOT) (also FEELINGS but yes, plot as well). Sorry to disappoint, but not rly yaoi or M/M.... There's brotherly love (LOTS of 'em) aaaaaand idk I love bi!Steph so maybe there'll be a cameo ascdkdgcvkffisd</p>
            </blockquote>





	That One Time Jason Todd Works with Tim Drake, and the Times After That

**Author's Note:**

> I always wondered why Jason and Tim go along super well together in N52 bc in fanon it's p much established that they fucking /hate/ each other. Since I'm a canon kinda girl (and the kinda girl that doesn't hate Outlaws and N52 universe /that/ much), I kinda need to fill in the gaps. 
> 
> ( Original post-crisis origin story for Jason because the Thompkins ver. is lame af. Also takes place before Outlaws, when Bruce is B and Alfred has his hands intact and everything made sense without RoboGordon!Bat )

Jason Todd doesn’t _hate_ Tim Drake. He really doesn’t, scout’s honour. He was hurt, and disappointed, and all kinds of fucked up and messed up, but the truth was this: Jason Todd doesn’t hate Tim Drake, any more than he hates Bruce Wayne or Dick Grayson.

Jason Todd hates _Robin_.

He hates the idea of Batman too (because it’s _Batman_ he hates, not Bruce Wayne – he hates how _Batman_ hides behind the idea of justice, yet never tries to actually do what needed to be done), and he hates how Batman, even after everything, even after the crowbar, still recruits another Robin. A _kid_. A little _boy_ , fighting a bunch of insane, _lethal_ adults. And for what purpose? Gotham is devoid of salvation. No one can save her. Certainly not by a man dressed up as a giant bat and a grinning child shouting out lame punchlines in colourful spandex.

Jason Todd pities Tim Drake, because Tim Drake was _whole_ and Tim Drake was _clever_ and _bright_ and has a whole _life_ in front of him. Jason didn’t have that – he grew up among dirty rats (literally and figuratively), with a sonuvabitch as a father and a small, depressed woman as a mother (he loves them dearly though, would give up his life for his mother, would murder forty men for his father). Jason _hates_ how Tim Drake didn’t seem to know what he signed up for. Tim Drake is throwing his life away, and Jason Todd wished he could save him.

“See here,” he imagined himself saying, “You will _die_. And if – when – you die, no one is gonna give a fuck. Not Batman: he’ll find another sidekick soon enough. Not the Titans: the first Robin – the original, the boy scout, the smiling, _perfect_ Robin – will always be the one in their memories. I’ve _been there_. They don’t see _me_ – they won’t see _you_. You will _die_ , Robin, and nobody will remember you, and you’ll be wasting your breath on the kind of justice that just _doesn’t work_.”

But words were never Jason’s strong suit, so he broke into the Titans tower and beat the crap out of Tim Drake, asking him the important questions, trying to knock some sense into him. “You’re replaceable,” he wants to say. “I was replaceable. Please _get out_ before you kill yourself. You don’t deserve this. No child deserves this.”

Of course, Jason Todd was wrong, because Tim Drake has friends and a _girlfriend_ (ha, imagine _that_!), and he didn’t die, and he was loved as Robin – as Red Robin too. But in some ways, Jason Todd was not entirely mistaken: there was a price to be paid when Tim Drake donned the boots and cape. He experienced loss, greater than any grief he would’ve known if he stayed as Tim Drake, paparazzi extraordinaire. That changed him, moulded him into something _harsher_ , _colder_. Less human. More… _mechanical_.

And Jason Todd feels sorry for him. He really does. He can tell that Tim was a better Robin than he is – smarter, more calculated, more _careful_. Tim fights fair and follows Batman’s order. He can do _stuff_ on the computer (Jason could as well, but not as good – _never_ as good), he gets along with the Titans, he’s… He’s as fucking flawless as _Dick Grayson_ , for fuck’s sake!

But Tim Drake was also _broken_ – you don’t generally turn up intact when you’re in this trade – and Jason is impressed and worried, and one could almost say that he feels quite _sympathetic_. Batman might not give a single fuck about the mental well-being of his wards (or maybe, Jason allowed himself to think, Bruce just doesn’t know _how_ to deal with them), but Jason Todd’s _been_ there. He _knows_.

So when he spotted Tim Drake – well, _Red Robin_ – in a dark alley with a pair of beaten up, very passed out thugs, Jason Todd knows exactly what to do.

**Author's Note:**

> ( Remember that time when Jason Todd goes all "HUARGH I'M ROBIN AND I'M SAD" on Tim Drake and destroyed the Titans' memorial statues? That was great - and can evidently be found in Teen Titans #29 )


End file.
